Lisha Epperson coordinated a five-week children’s arts program at All Souls Episcopal Church in Harlem, in partnership with the Church of the Heavenly Rest. For the second year of the program, she used grant money to hire teaching artists and performers, which provided a level of consistency to the program and support for the volunteers. The children engaged music, art, interactive computer gaming, and more meditative practices such as knitting and hand crafts; Epperson was affirmed in her belief in the Spirit’s role in the creative process and the sanctity of spaces where art is created. The program culminated in a family art activity, where participation of parents opened the door for invitation into the church community and inspired Epperson to dream of the role of the church.
She reflects that she dreams both of re-awakening the church in Harlem and of reviving church everywhere, where church becomes “a distribution center of blessing for all … a community drenched with love … where God is poured into the spaces of a community that need filling.”
